Broken
by Gemagi-chan
Summary: The lengths some people can go to....


Ok, this is kind of inspired by by ch19.

Disclaimer: If I owned it........ that would be _awesome._

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"Wh- why did you do this...!?"

He stared, numb, unmoving, shocked.

He could not comprehend what had just occurred.

"Because"

The response that was offered was hardly enlightening, the only thing he did know is that she was not thinking straight, evident by the harshness of her voice. It was so unlike her.

Slowly, almost at a snails pace, he examined the area around Alice. He felt a little ill, not just at the actions of his room-mate, which could be fixed eventually. The consequences, however, are what really made his insides twist. They would be much worse; irrevocable.

Alice had, in fact, broken several of his clocks, his life work in pieces before him. The greatest crime in Wonderland. A sin with no penance that could be paid.

This she knew.

"Why?"

She would be imprisoned in the Clock Tower for the longest time. Perhaps forever. The sheer ludicrousness of consciously choosing that fate had turned his stomach again, his face, he was sure, had turned an appropriate pale shade of green.

He stumbled forwards, leaning on his worn work desk for support, his hand grazing one of the demolished clocks.

Perhaps one of the renegades had broken in to destroy one of their deceased comrades hearts, and Alice was taking the blame. She was such a gentle child, she wouldn't want anyone to suffer more than they already did. And they did suffer.

"Alice..."

"Aren't you going to lock me up? I broke the law. You have to keep me in the Tower"

Her voice was cracking. He could sense one of his worst fears happening: Alice was going to cry. He couldn't handle crying girls. He really couldn't handle Alice crying. The last time she had wept in his presence, he fell forward, squeezing her until he heard her breath return to normal. It was like a convulsion as his limbs moved of their own accord, clumsily pulling her to him in an attempt to comfort.

Compassion was not first nature to the residence of Wonderland.

"You can't let me go. You can't get rid of me." She turned to face him, her eyes moist, tears on the verge of spilling over, of running down her reddened cheeks.

She really did it.

A light, tinkling sound broke his reverie, catching his attention. A small, cool object bumped his hand, causing him to jump slightly.

Alice had rolled her vial, her key to escaping this endless game, to getting back to the world where she belonged. An offering to him.

She stared at him, tears _almost_ spilling over her lashes. She was waiting. She had all the time in the world now. She would wait.

Picking up the vial, holding it,small though it was, felt like the heaviest weight in the world.

He held her future in her hands.

He had over his many years, fixed the clocks that people here had inside their bodies. Raised the dead, so to speak. His work required a few deaths as well.

Hands that had been covered in blood when receiving broken clocks, that had been smeared with oil after many hours of tinkering with the machines, now handled the most precious object he had ever come across.

Their eyes locked, and almost reflexively, his hand squeezed at the sight of her first tear drop. The vial cracked in his grasp.

For a moment, it seemed time had stopped.

Julius eventually reacted to the glass shards currently embedded in his fist. Blood dripped from the tiny wounds, and for the first time in what seemed like hours, they both moved from their standpoints. Julius sat down in his worn leather chair; Alice ran to get the first aid kit.

Upon her return, the heavy silence settled once again. Pulling out the shards as carefully as she could, and wrapping his hand with a gentleness that mimicked a mother caring for her child, he finally had enough. He had to speak.

"You'll have to stay here. Only here. You can't stay at the Castle, or the Hatter's Estate, or the Amusement Park"

"I know" She smiled as she said this, her tears all but vanished during her absence. She wasn't taking the seriousness of her offence into account. He wondered if he was as well.

"If you do want to go out, I'll have to accompany you. Everywhere. Even just down the road to buy food"

"Is that leniency I detect, Julius? Aren't you going to chain me up?" Julius swore he heard a teasing tone in her voice, and something else he didn't care to think about now, it was not the appropriate time.

"You won't be able to get much, even if we do go out on errands occasionally. A Clockmaker's wage is not large"

"Mmm-hmm"

Julius sighed, once again examining the damage. His work was doubled now, and he was sure she would insist on helping him repair them, as she always did. He would not be able to refuse her this time.

Perhaps he could watch her sleight of hand this time

"You realise you've condemned yourself to a lifetime of my company"

Alice snickered "You realise you've just condemned yourself to a lifetime of coffee, score averaging 76 points "

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Ok, that's my first time writing Julius at length. Hope it was ok!

This was much longer than I had intended it to be, but that's good... I suppose.

Please review, it inspires me to write more.


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